Mr. Brendan Byrne:

I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for his question and, indeed, I meant to address the issue of the survey. We, in the industry, welcome the survey. The more that is documented in terms of the state of the industry then the better because for too long we have been all too silent as we watch the industry go down, reduce and become less relevant.

In my 51 years the only two optimistic things that I have seen in fishing have happened in the last nine months.

We have a dedicated Minister of State who is giving energy and commitment to the sector, which I welcome. We also have at long last a robust fisheries committee, which has a massive role to play in the time ahead. Of course, we have the programme for Government and all that contains.

Any State agency foolish enough to publish something that is not accurate is only making itself irrelevant by its actions. We who represent the industry all know the state it is in. Those who work in the industry know the challenges they are operating with. If any agency wants to go into fantasy economics or works of fiction, it reflects worse on that agency than anything else. I do not need to say anything more about that.

The days of fooling the people are over. We have an industry that is challenged to the hilt but resilient and willing to fight and build back. All we need is a fair shot and a level playing field. It is like any other sector of the economy. In my lifetime I have seen the beef industry fall twice and the mushroom sector fall. I have seen different sectors of the economy struggle. We are struggling and have been for the past four years but there are few helping hands reaching out to us. It has not been dealt with fairly or equally.

What is at stake? There are 17,000 coastal jobs at stake. That might not sound much in an economy with millions of jobs but can anyone here or listening tell me how to replace that number of jobs in rural, peripheral and maritime areas? Those 17,000 jobs are the equivalent of many Intels. They are not replaceable and communities depend on them.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn is right that the actions of the Department in the past have been hostile to fishing. I have seen it. I was a public representative of a coastal community for ten years. I have seen what it is capable of. I will not go any further than that because I will not dwell on the past. I want to shape a future containing, after I retire, a resilient, robust industry. That is what we need to focus on and what I have been continuously saying today. What we have been doing to date has failed. We need to admit that. The first step to recovery is admitting what was done has failed. Now we need to do it better.